LAMOINE — Maine State Police are attempting to determine who pulled the trigger in a shooting that left one man dead and three others wounded in a small coastal town in Hancock County.
One man is dead and another critically wounded following a shooting that took place early Sunday morning.
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Stephen McCausland, Maine State Police spokesman, said four men were wounded in the shooting outside a single-family home in Lamoine around 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
Detectives were investigating the circumstances of the shootings to see if they lead to a suspect, McCausland said. A fifth man also at the house at the time was not injured. Police did not identify that man.
McCausland said Lawrence “Randy” Sinclair, 32, of Ellsworth died of his wounds around 4 p.m. Sunday at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
McCausland described the wounds of Torrey Garland, 34, of Ellsworth as “life threatening.” Garland was undergoing treatment at EMMC.
Michael Carter, 30, of Lamoine also was hospitalized at the Bangor hospital, but McCausland said Carter’s condition was not as serious as Garland’s.
The fourth shooting victim, Joshua McKinney, 35, of Ellsworth, was being treated at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth for wounds that are not considered to be life threatening.
The shootings took place outside the home of Carter and Tacy Mullins, 22, at 749 Douglas Highway, which is Route 184.
He lives there with 22-year-old Tacy Mullins. The residence is owned by Juanita Mullins, who is Tacy’s mother, according to the Bangor Daily News.
A fifth man was at the house at the time of the shooting, but he was not injured. Police did not identify him.
McCausland said detectives are trying to sort out what led to the shootings, but he said the public should not be concerned about their safety.
“We know who all the players are,” he said. “Right now we are trying to figure out what sparked this violence.”
The scene was surrounded by crime tape as detectives talked to neighbors. Authorities wouldn’t comment on possible suspects. No arrests had been made late Sunday.
Stu Marckoon, a resident and town employee, told the Associated Press that streams of residents walked or drove past the home to get a look throughout the day, and the violence didn’t seem to shake the community.
Although the shootings were reported at 4:30 a.m., a neighbor whose home is about 100 yards from the shooting scene said he was awakened about 3:30 a.m. by the sound of gunshots, according to the Bangor Daily News.
“I heard three gunshots,” the neighbor said, asking not to be identified. “But that’s not unusual. The person who lives across the street repairs guns, so we hear shots a lot.”
The Bangor Daily News, citing police reports, reported that a man with the same name, age and hometown as Sinclair was involved in an accident in which a vehicle struck a utility pole late Saturday afternoon near the scene of the shooting.
Officer Tom Burgess of the Holden Police Department told the newspaper that the driver got distracted and lost control of his 2002 Ford Explorer.
“He cut (the utility pole) right off,” Burgess said.
The accident backed up traffic in both directions because the utility pole was lying across Bagaduce Road, forcing cars to be rerouted.
“He walked away without a scratch,” Burgess said, referring to the driver. The vehicle, however, was totaled.
State Police Lt. Chris Coleman told the newspaper, “We have several different versions of what happened. … Whether that was related, we’re still trying to determine.”
Lamoine is a town of about 1,800 residents that not far from Bar Harbor. It is located about 30 miles east of Bangor.
Lamoine serves primarily as a bedroom community for the busy commercial city of Ellsworth, said Town Selectman Richard Fennelly Jr. Residents include a mix of longtime coastal Mainers and new families who’ve moved in, he said.
The AP said Maine records about 24 homicides per year. In February, a firefighter from Florida who had been missing in Maine was the victim of what police called a drug-related killing in the rural town of Jackson.
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